One of the most reliable things about Safety is that it doesn’t know what to do about risk. This is most obvious when it adopts campaigns like: meerkats, Hazardman, dumb ways to die, Mums for Safety, brain blobs for mental health (https://safetyrisk.net/how-not-to-view-mental-health-and-safety/), sexy safety, Pickles for safety and a host of dumb semiotics that communicate effectively just how dumb Safety is. All of these are evidence that Safety has no idea what to do about fallibility and risk.
Some of the best offenders of dumb down semiotics are engineers, regulators and behaviourists who know nothing about messaging, semiotic complexity or communicating to the unconscious. None better than Safe Work Australia. When you don’t know what to do about fallible humans, just make s4*t up! (https://safetyrisk.net/the-nonsense-of-safety-awareness/; https://safetyrisk.net/when-you-dont-know-just-make-s4t-up/). Oh yes, come have a SafeTea when you can be lectured on what you’ve done wrong according to an interpretation of the Act and Regulation.
BTW, the best way to be professional is not to speak the word incessantly hundreds of times, it is actually to BE professional and understand the basics of ethical practice. One of the best ways to be ethical is to respect others and NOT treat them like children. Unfortunately, this IS the safety model and evidence of its culture. This kind of ‘superiority safety’ is the best way I know to piss people off from safety.
The latest example of this Mentalitie is colouring in activity sheets and find a word puzzles issued by Safe Work Australia as safety activities.
We have already seen how Safe Work Australia ‘tell’ about ‘SafeTea’ that has no mention of persons, listening, care, understanding etc. Didn’t you know, Safety is all about ‘telling’, even when the word ‘conversation is used’.
I bet you are all busting to download the SafeTradie checklist that treats tradies as children. This is the Safety way and of course a sure-fire way to alienate every tradie from the fundamentals of tackling risk. This is the checklist that doesn’t even mention the word ‘risk’, how professional!
- I know let’s look for innovation in safety by asking an engineer!
- I know let’s speak incessantly about ‘compliance’ and then try to rustle up some kind of creativity and innovation from a foundation that is afraid of discovery, creativity and learning.
But of course, the problem here is not how infantile Safety is but that I dare criticise Safety.
Now little children, all line up in rows, get out your colouring-in pencils and do your safety drawing. First child who finishes the ‘word search’ activity gets an early mark! My god, who thinks up this kind of stuff (https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/doc/national-safe-work-month-23-activity-pack).
- I know children, those with the best coloured safety shield can hang it about the office to see how non-professional Safety is.
Here we have Safe Work Australia for safety month doing everything they possibly can to NOT raise the issue of risk or an understanding of helping, dialogue, listening and care in risk.
What a wonderful testimony to irrelevance and being out of touch with the Real Risk (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/real-risk/ ) of what goes on a work.
This is the same group that support the religious delusion of Zero (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/zero-the-great-safety-delusion/).
The ideology of Zero is the single most destructive semiotic in the safety world to ensure Safety remains irrelevant, out of touch with the front-line and off with the religious fairies!
Doesn’t this all just excite you about how professional Safety is?
Poor olde Safety stuck in its own mythology of religious observance, spruiking belief in the impossible and praising itself as professional, when it’s just an amateur outfit that has no idea what to do about fallibility and risk (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/fallibility-risk-living-uncertainty/).
I bet those colouring-in sheets help so much in helping people tackle the complexity and wickedity of risk!
However, on a better and positive note. If you do what to know about being professional in a positive, constructive and practical way that tackles risk you can download a case study of how SPoR works! (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/it-works-a-new-approach-to-risk-and-safety-book-for-free-download/)
Or
Download and view the free Introduction to SPoR and Due Diligence workshops:
Free SPoR Intro
https://vimeo.com/showcase/4233556
Free Due Diligence
https://vimeo.com/showcase/4883640
or an even greater risk, why not even write to Dr Long (robertlong2@mac.com) with your questions and see if there is something to learn in SPoR that may help you become professional.
Dr Rob Long
Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)
- Free SPoR Poster - December 7, 2023
- The Safety Dance - December 6, 2023
- Manufacturing a Worldview to Fit Safety - December 6, 2023
- Tolerance - December 5, 2023
- Lies, Shortcuts and Lessons from Armstrong - December 4, 2023
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